Channel surfing refers to the practice of scanning through different television channels, radio stations, and/or other media content offerings in order to find media content that may be of interest to a user. For example, a user of a set-top box device may channel surf (e.g., by pressing channel up or down buttons on a remote control) in order to find television programs that the user may be interested in viewing.
However, as media content providers have expanded and continue to expand the media content choices available to users by way of set-top box devices and other types of media content access devices, channel surfing has become less efficient and less effective. For example, a user may have access to hundreds or even thousands of channels by way of a set-top box device, but be interested in only a small fraction of the media content programs offered by way of these channels. Hence, the user may have to channel surf through a relatively large number of channels before finding a media content program in which he or she is interested. Not only is this cumbersome and time-consuming for the user, but it may result in missed viewing opportunities, which, in turn, may lead to reduced revenue for the television network service provider.